by calderlodgeschool

Nicky Nook Newsletter
Logo, company nameDescription automatically generatedNICKY NOOK NEWSLETTER AUTUMN TERM (1) 2026Cute Yellow Maple Leaf Clip Art Free PNG Image｜Illustoon

THIS HALF TERM AT SCHOOL

Mrs FarnworthWelcome back to a brand-new school year! I hope you and your families have had a wonderful, restful summer break and that your child is excited for the year ahead.A special warm welcome goes to our new families joining Calder Lodge. I know our returning pupils will make them feel very welcome. I am already incredibly impressed so far this week with our children’s positive attitudes, behaviour, engagement and energy, there has also been an abundance of smiley faces.We firmly believe that a child’s education thrives when there is a strong partnership between home and school. We very much look forward to working with your child and you over the coming months.

Mr Hutchinson / Mr Marrin – Class Teacher
Miss Lowe and Mr Manning – Keyworkers

Welcome to Nicky Nook! We are excited for you all to join us in this class and begin our learning journey throughout the year. We cannot wait to see you take on the challenge of a new class and classmates whilst continuing to develop your academic abilities throughout our time together. There are going to be lots of exciting opportunities to take part in and lots of memories to be made.

DON’T FORGET……

If your child has any medical appointments, please inform school in advance where possible – you MUST send a copy (either hard copy or a picture by email) of the appointment letter/card/text to school for our register.If your child is absent due to illness, please telephone school before 8.00 am and leave a message. Your child will not be collected for school until you inform us that they are well enough to return. 

PARENT REMINDER

Children must be in school uniform each day and wear black shoes or trainers, no sportswear. 
All medication must be in the original packaging with child’s name and dosage visible. 
Children MUST be ready for transport each morning. We cannot wait any more than 5 minutes at your address. Any additional time may result in your child not being collected. 
If your child has sickness and/or diarrhoea our school policy states that they MUST remain absent from school for 48 hours after the last bout.

IMPORTANT DATES

World First Aid Day 11th September, British Science Festival 16th September, Yom Kippur 21st September, Sukkot 25th September, British Food Fortnight 28th September, Black History Month – October, International Day of the Girl Child 11th October.

Cultural Capital Dates: 
Wednesday 16th September 2026 – Rock Collecting at Hest Bank (TBC)
Wednesday 14th October 2026 – Pizza making at the Pig and Whistle (TBC)

Autumn Term (1) 2026 Ends: Friday 23rd October 2026
Autumn Term (2) 2026 Begins: Monday 9th November 2026

CURRICULUM

Our topic this term is Gods and Mortals! Nicky Nook will journey through different cultures, discovering fascinating Gods and the myths and legends surrounding them. We will bring these stories to life through role play, exploring Greek and Roman tales, whilst developing our creativity through art and design. We’ll be creating clay models of Greek Gods and Goddesses, as well as a Trojan horse to inspire our story writing.In Maths, Nicky Nook will develop a range of skills throughout the Autumn term. We will begin with measurement, exploring length and height before moving on to perimeter. We will then investigate fractions, including adding and subtracting fractions, before developing our confidence when telling the time.Our English learning will link closely to our Gods and Mortals topic. We will explore diary entries, instructions and character descriptions, identifying their key features and discovering how vocabulary can bring our writing to life. We will then use these skills to create our own exciting pieces of writing.In Science, our first half-term focus will be rocks and fossils. We will investigate different types of rocks and enjoy some hands-on fieldwork, collecting rocks and fossils to observe and analyse. In the second half term, we will explore animals, including humans, learning about the functions of different body parts and comparing the characteristics of different animals and mammals.

CULTURAL CAPITAL

For our first Cultural Capital trip we will link to our Science topic. We will by taking part in a fieldwork activity, where we will collect a variety of rocks and fossils from Hest Bank beach. The class will put on their wellies and explore the beachfront to find rocks, shells and fossils to analyse and observe. 

Our second Cultural Capital trip will be a visit to a castle. This will take our learning out of the classroom to bring our topic of Gods and Mortals to life, providing ideas to help support our writing of poems and stories about different myths and legends. The class will put their descriptive skills to the test to help find exciting vocabulary to use in their English writing.